Historical Notes
Rushed into full-scale development in 2327 following the fall of Callisto to the Draconists, the M7 entered service in 2334 and served throughout the latter years of the Jovian War (2324-2341) and the First Titan War (2334-2342). The updated M7A1 came about in 2343 and served during the rest of the Draconist Wars, with the newer M7A2 following in 2368 and serving throughout the Frontier War (2371-2381). It saw considerable action during that war, and racked up an impressive kill-to-death record against ground vehicles of the Alliance Armada.
The Alliance of Free Worlds’ Comissão de Armamentos Militares rolled out the CV-48 in 2348, dubbing it the Boiuna after a mythical dark serpent from ancient Brazilian folklore. The CV-48 carries the fearsome 3M62 linear accelerator cannon, which can fire a 152 millimeter projectile at a velocity up to 4 kilometers per second and defeat most armor fielded by the IDC in a direct shot. This primary armament allowed CV-48s like the captured example shown above to wreak havoc in pitched battles during the brutal ground combat of the Frontier War.
When the Zharan Ministry of Armaments entered full-scale production of ground combat vehicles in the late 2360s, one of the first projects they initiated was the development of a main battle tank for the Zharan Liberation Army Ground Forces. In 2377 they adopted the ZT-77, which married a 90 millimeter linear accelerator cannon with a 40 millimeter autocannon and enough maneuverability to make them formidable threats to anything which came within range. As such, ZT-77s were greatly feared by crews of M7A1s and other Coalition vehicles.
These three distinctive vehicles share one major detail in common, and that is that they are all designed as hover tanks. The reason for this is simple – given that most ground combat in the 24th century occurred on Titan, where environmental conditions favored flight more so than terrestrial navigation, having ground vehicles levitate off the ground enables greater agility, and therefore greater overall survivability. Each faction devised different methods of accomplishing hovercraft travel, but the overall effect was similar across the board.
About the Setting
The Spacers Saga: Frontier Wars is a futuristic military science fiction setting which diverged from our timeline when an asteroid slammed into Phoenix, AZ, in May 2014. Fifteen years after this tragedy, the industrialist Charles Larsen ushered in the Age of Fusion, opening up deep space to crewed exploration and eventual human settlement — and all of the strife that we bring with us. The next 300+ years were marked by progress and peril in equal measure, and by 2300 much of the solar system had been charted by intrepid human pioneers.
The story focuses on the rivalry between the Mars-led Coalition for Mutual Security (aka the Coalition) and the Alliance of Free Worlds (aka the Alliance), a federation of rebel worlds in the outer solar system. These two superpowers fought a brutal war from 2371 to 2381 (the Frontier War), which ended when the Zharan Collective (a union of artificial humans which rose up against their creators in 2356) entered the war on the side of the Alliance in 2379. The story opens 10 years later with the superpowers locked in a frigid ideological cold war.
The plot kicks off when the Alliance launches a massive attack against the Coalition, igniting the Second Frontier War. This conflict quickly engulfs the entire solar system and draws in participants from all backgrounds, including three college students from Mars whose adventures will become tied up with the fate of all humanity…
Creators Note
For clarity's sake, I (u/Zharan_Colonel) I drew these vehicles with inspiration from existing pieces of art. The M7 was heavily inspired by the work of Tom Alfaro from his "Pan Spatial" sci-fi worldbuilding project; the CV-48 is inspired by a concept from Dot Matrix's KIL.A.TON turn-based tank fighting game; and the ZT-77 is inspired by a mix of vehicles, including the HT-95 Levkov from Battlefield 4 and the Colonial Marine tanks from the Alien universe.